Pork Tiella with Wild Mushrooms and Potatoes

Pork Tiella before Baking - Potatoes scattered thru dish

Tiella after 2nd baking with Potatoes on top with Cheese

Plated Tiella

Cabbage and Rice Soup

It is wintery here in Los Angeles and Cathy found a great recipe: Pork Tiella with Wild Mushrooms and Potatoes from Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking – Paula Wolfert. This dish is fun to make. We had purchased a beautiful fatty Pork Shoulder at McCalls Meat and Fish. After we cut up the meat, potatoes, and mushrooms we placed them in a Le Crueset pan rather than a Clay Pot Cooker (our Le Crueset is larger than our clay pots). You bake the Tiella then remove all of the potatoes from the dish and layer them on top. You then top with the grated cheese and re-bake. This creates a gratin-like dish with crunchy potatoes on top. It is very unusual and good!

Pomegranates and Persimmons are at their best right now. We have a favorite salad we make from them. We started with a favorite salad: Persimmons, Pomegranate, Arugula, Almonds, Saba, and topped with Prosciutto. We got most of the ingredients at The Cheese Store of Silverlake.

We also make Minestra di Versa e Riso (Cabbage and Rice Soup) from Cucina Rustica by Viana La Place & Evan Kleiman. It is a very easy to make soup, perfect for a cold night. If you like thick soups this is for you. Interestingly, unlike many soups it is not made from a stock – just add water!

Minestra di Versa e Riso

Cabbage    and    Rice Soup

Cucina Rustica

Viana La Place & Evan Kleiman

Serves 6 to 8

Simple, healthful ingredients that are always available create this deli­cious, savory soup.

1         head Savoy or green cabbage

¼         cup extra-virgin olive oil

6          ounces prosciutto, roughly chopped

2         quarts water

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

½         cup long-grain rice

Grated Parmesan cheese for table use

Core the cabbage and shred as for cole slaw. Heat the oil in a soup pot with a heavy bottom. Add the prosciutto and saute over low heat until it renders its fat. Add the shredded cabbage and stir until it is well coated with oil. Add the water to cover the cabbage. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer the soup gently. If you wish, place the cover slightly askew on the soup pot. Cook until cabbage is very tender, approximately 1 1/2 hours. Add salt and pepper to taste. About 1/2 hour before serving, remove the cover, bring the soup to a lively boil, and add the rice. Cook over high heat until the rice is tender, about 15 minutes. Serve immediately, passing grated Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on the soup.

Pork Tiella with Wild Mushrooms and Potatoes

Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking

Paula Wolfert

SERVES 4

This recipe is from the Silana Mountains area of Calabria, Italy, where the wonderful cow's milk cheese called caciocavallo is made. You may have seen pairs of the pear-shaped cheese connected by a rope hanging over a beam in Italian groceries, a shape resembling the legs of an equestrian, which explains its name {cavallo means "horseman" in Italian).

A tiella is a wide, medium-high glazed earthenware cooking vessel popular in Calabria and Puglia; the word also refers to the dish cooked in the pot. Success depends on proper evaporation of

moisture, the quality of the mushrooms, the meat, and the potatoes, as well as on the cooking time, which must be calculated perfectly so that everything becomes meltingly tender at the same moment. Happily, a Spanish cazuela will work perfidy wellin this savory recipe.

Preferred Clay Pot:

A 12-inch Spanish cazuela or a tiella from southern Italy. If using an electric or ceramic stovetop, be sure to use a heat diffuser with the clay pot.

¾         cup dried porcini or cepes mushrooms 3/4 ounce)

3         tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

3         garlic cloves, crushed

3         ounces thinly sliced pancetta, shredded

1         pound boneless pork shoulder, cut into l'^-inch chunks

1         pound red potatoes, peeled and thickly sliced

1         pound Italian brown mushrooms, quartered

1         long fresh rosemary sprig

A teaspoon crushed hot red pepper

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

4         ounces caciocavallo or aged provolone cheese,shredded

1         tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1.   Soak the porcini in 1 cup hot water for 20 to 30 minutes. Rub the mushrooms together to loosen any dirt and grit; then remove them from the water and coarsely chop. Strain the soaking liquid through a coffee filter or double layer of cheesecloth and set aside.

2.   Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in the cazuela. Add the garlic and pancetta and cook over medium-low heat, stirring, until golden, about 5 minutes. When the cazuela is warm, raise the heat to medium, add the pork, and cook, stirring, until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Add the potatoes, chopped porcini, quartered fresh mushrooms, rosemary, hot red pepper, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and the reserved mushroom-soaking liquid. Cover and simmer over low heat for 45 minutes. (The recipe can be prepared to this point up to 1 day in advance. Bring back to room temperature before continuing.)

3.   About 1 1/2 hours before serving, scrape any surface fat from the pork dish. Carefully pick out as many potatoes as possible and set aside. Arrange the meat and mushrooms in one layer and top with a layer of the potatoes. Gently press down to make the dish compact. Scatter the remaining tablespoon olive oil and the cheese on top and set in a cold oven. Set the temperature at 400°F and bake for 30 minutes. Turn off the heat, and let the dish continue to cook in the receding heat for 45 minutes. Serve hot or warm, with the chopped parsley sprinkled on top.